Gold Nuggets in Quartz:

Gold nuggets in quartz, or "Gold in Quartz" as it is most commonly called, is crystalline gold that is still attached to its host rock, most often quartz and occasionally some other type of rock. As most gold found in its host rock is microscopic and rarely visible to the naked eye, finding visible quantities of gold attached to it's host rock is quite rare indeed. Gold nuggets in quartz pieces are not priced only according to their gold content, but also according to their rarity, beauty, and desirability.

Crystalline Gold Nuggets:

Crystalline gold nuggets is gold that is in a rough crystallized form, in the same condition that it was originally formed in, without the host rock attached. Crystalline gold nuggets command a higher premium over spot gold prices than placer gold, often selling for two to five times the spot price of gold, or even higher for larger or rarer pieces.

Special Shaped Gold Nuggets:

Very rarely a gold nugget will be found that has a distinctive shape, maybe shaped as an animal, a fish, a bird in flight, or any other recognizable shape. Finding such a nugget is rare and exciting. Nuggets with a unique and recognizable shape , are extremely rare and essentially "priceless" and are generally priced accordingly.

Gold Crystal Nuggets:

This is crystalline gold that contains distinct gold crystals. Gold crystal nuggets, are the rarest form of gold and also some of the most expensive. Often priced many multiples of the spot gold price, they are often so rare as to be considered "priceless". This category has many subcategories, such as:

A hopper crystal is a form of crystal, defined by its "hoppered" shape. The edges of hoppered crystals are fully developed, but the interior spaces are not filled in. This results in what appears to be a hollowed out step lattice formation, as if someone had removed interior sections of the individual crystals. In fact, the "removed" sections never filled in, because the crystal was growing so rapidly that there was not enough time (or material) to fill in the gaps. The interior edges of a hoppered crystal still show the crystal form characteristic to the specific mineral, and so appear to be a series of smaller and smaller stepped down miniature versions of the original crystal.